In public safety emergency situations such as a natural calamity, fire, riots, terror attacks, etc., disaster management agencies receive a large and varied amount of information associated with an incident from a plurality of information sources. Such information can include descriptive text (e.g., medical information), images (e.g., floor plans), video clips (e.g., building entry video), live surveillance video, and the like. Generally, a data management system collects such information or references to the information sources. The data management system then sends the information to a designated group of people, referred to as responders, assigned to the incident.
Such enormous amount of information may easily overwhelm the responders and can distract the responders from their primary mission. Moreover, external information sources are generally not allowed to send relevant information directly to the responders as the management agencies may also want to shield the identity and address of the responders from the external sources, especially from non-governmental entities. Therefore, the responders are often left unaware of additional information that might help them to tackle the situation efficiently.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for selectively distributing media inputs associated with an incident to the responders assigned to the incident.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.